Tuesday, 20 March 2018

There's some beautiful footage of a model Saturn V rocket blasting off from its launch pad and gantry here.

Its from You Tube and appears about half way through.

Rocketry has always fascinated me but I never had actual firing rockets as a kid. Did you?

What I did have was the Project SWORD Cape Kennedy Set with its own Saturn V back in '67.

Made by Century 21 Toys it as a bundle of battery-operated rocket fun!

I had more fun with my set a few years aback as you can see from this You Tube short I did at the time.

I always thought Century 21 Toys could have released a large plastic biulding, the VAB, as an accessory to this toy, maybe even flat-packed IKEA style!They didn't so I made my own from a cardboard box.Enjoy!

Monday, 19 March 2018

I remember the brown one distinctly dragging his box trailer along behind him. He gave my Action Man a ride round the room now and then.

But could Zeroid's do any real work?

Would that trailer take a a book from one side of the room to another for instance or maybe relocate a whole stack of loose SpaceX vehicles?

There's one other working Robot I'd have loved as a nipper in 1968, Captain Robo from Yonezawa - their 21st Century Space Series range. It looks superb but I don't know how the robot pulled the trailer. Or did it?

Captain Robo reminds me of something in Space Safari by Miniflex. I haven't got that set so if you have maybe let me know which vehicle I'm thinking of.

The Captain's red domed cockpit has a look of the Project SWORD Moon Ranger too. I'd like to get a good clear look inside that red dome.

".... the late 1960's, he [Ian Scoones] got wind that Gerry Anderson's Century 21 Studios were selling off all their props and models and was invited to purchase some of the stuff. He jumped in a van and tootled over to the studios with his assistant Mat Irvine and loaded the van to capacity with loads of stuff - much of which would end up in Doctor Who in one shape or another."

So Mat's professional modelling went as far back as the late 1960's and the close of Century 21? Wow! I'd no idea he was part of that golden age. I can't imagine what fabulous Century 21 props Mat saw when Gerry's company shut up shop. A sad day but I would have loved to have been there with Ian and Mat!

Are you aware of this C21 props sell-off readers and are you aware of Mat Irvine's modeling work?